


Don't Forget to Remember Me

by SingingInTheRaiin



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, Happy Ending, Reunion Fic, River Song & Rose Tyler Friendship, River Song is Rose Tyler, River plays matchmaker, Time Travel, convoluted explanations to make things happen the way i want, lol, technically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-18 22:09:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22767298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SingingInTheRaiin/pseuds/SingingInTheRaiin
Summary: When the TARDIS lands the Doctor & Co in a clinic that claims to be able to bring back lost memories, the Doctor is intrigued to see how it works. When she's the one on the table, though, she is given a memory that definitely doesn't belong to her, but gives her hope for the future all the same.
Relationships: Metacrisis Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler (mentioned), The Doctor (Doctor Who)/Rose Tyler, The Doctor/River Song, Thirteenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Comments: 7
Kudos: 120





	Don't Forget to Remember Me

The Doctor looked at the humans excitedly. “Oh, we’re all in for a treat now. This is Draxion XVI, and they have the best massages out of anywhere in the quadrant, at least for the next few hundred years. Come on!” She yanked open the TARDIS doors, and took a step outside, and then immediately paused. Ryan walked right into her back, and she would have apologized for stopping so abruptly, but she was distracted by looking at architecture that clearly was not found on Draxion XVI.

She started moving forward again, eager to figure out where they’d actually landed. She’d learned a long time ago that despite her supposedly awful driving, the TARDIS really never landed the Doctor somewhere that she wasn’t supposed to be. So she wanted to know what the TARDIS needed her to see this time.

As they moved through the hallways, it took a few minutes before they encountered a person for the first time. The Doctor tipped her head back to look up at the being, who was at least ten feet tall, and was wearing tasteful dark green robes that complimented their light green skin. “Oh, hello. Sorry, but patients aren’t supposed to be back here. Doctors only.”

The Doctor grinned even as she heard Graham let out a groan from where he was standing behind her. She whipped out the psychic paper and angled it upwards so that the alien would be able to see it. “Well it just so happens that I am a doctor.” 

The alien leaned over slightly to get a better look, and let out a soft hum. “Well, it does appear that you’re a doctor. But I meant a doctor that works in the clinic. It’s alright, that’s an understandable mistake to make based on the way I worded my statement. Why don’t I just lead you back out to the lobby, then?”

The Doctor motioned for the alien to lead the way. “So are you a doctor, then?”

“Oh, yes. I’m Dr. Hziela.”

The Doctor would have asked another question, but Ryan beat her to it, even if it wasn’t the question she would have asked. “Sorry, but is this supposed to be a hospital or something? ‘Cause it doesn’t look like any kind of hospital that I’ve ever seen.” 

Now that he mentioned it, there didn’t appear to be any of the usual hospital-y things, and not just by Earth standards. The Doctor didn’t need to repeat Ryan’s question, though, because Dr. Hziela answered without any additional prompting. “Oh no, this isn’t a medical hospital. This is what we like to call the mind and soul clinic. We serve many functions here, but the one we are best known for is our ability to help summon forgotten memories.”

“If they’re forgotten, then they’re not really memories,” Graham said softly. 

Dr. Hziela didn’t seem bothered by the statement. “Oh, we are firm believers that it is impossible for any memories to ever truly be lost. We get patients who have repressed memories from trauma, or lost track of them across time or head injuries or anything, really.”

Well that was certainly a fascinating ability, but, “I have a perfect memory,” the Doctor bragged. “So I guess this clinic isn’t the place for me.”

The group emerged through a set of double doors, and into a tasteful looking lobby with white marble walls and a very tall receptionist desk. Yaz tugged on the Doctor’s sleeve as the other doctor gave them a cheery wave goodbye. “Doctor, we need to get back there to get to the TARDIS, don’t we?”

The Doctor frowned at that. “Yes, I suppose we do. Well, which of you would like to remember something long forgotten?”

They all looked at her like she was nuts (which was a look that she was more than used to by this point in her life), and she tried to think about what she’d said that was so strange to them. The three humans looked at each other, and seemed almost like they shared a silent conversation despite the fact that none of them were even the slightest bit telepathic. Finally Yaz stepped forward. “Doctor,” But then she stopped abruptly, like she hadn’t really thought through what she was going to say.

The Doctor sighed. “Alright, alright, I’ll be the patient for today. I might have a perfect memory, but there’s still a lot up here to sort through,” she tapped the side of her head for emphasis, “and I’m sure this lot will be able to find something that got swept under the rug a long time ago.”

Graham cleared his throat. “I thought you did forget things, when it involves complicated time stuff and future selves? Seems like a bit of a risk that you might accidentally uncover something that you’re not supposed to know yet.”

“Then one of you needs to step up and-”

Yaz reached out to touch the Doctor’s arm. “It’s not that we don’t want to help, but wouldn’t pulling out memories mean rooting around in our heads? Maybe you’re used to that, but to humans, the idea is not very appealing. I mean, if there’s really no other choice then I can-”

The Doctor reached up to give Yaz’s hand an almost absent-minded pat. “Ah, right, yes, excellent points all around. Alright, then I’ll just have them pull out some specific memory that I already remember. The details don’t really matter, as long as it gets us back there, right?” Then she practically skipped over to the nearest alien and tipped her head back to look up at them. “Hello! I’m here to sign up to be not-a-doctor for one of the few and only times in my life. Memory extraction and all that. You don’t mind if I take my friends back with me, do you? I might need the emotional support.”

They gave the Doctor a large smile in return. “Of course! We would never discourage anyone from bringing support with them. Let’s see, why don’t you fill out this paperwork, and then I will pop you right onto the waiting list.”

The Doctor thought about how much she wanted to show off Draxion XVI to the fam, and she tried to keep a polite smile on her face. “Do you have an estimate of how long the wait would be? I’m afraid it’s a bit of an urgent matter.”

The alien tapped away at their computer for a minute before looking up at the Doctor. “The closest I can book you for is next week.” And they really did sound very contrite about it.

“If you’ll excuse me, then I guess I’ll go fill out this paperwork.” The Doctor had no intention of filling out any paperwork. She despised paperwork. She still remembered what it was like when she was stuck on Earth working for UNIT, and every little thing she did involved filing reports and checking boxes and filling in the blanks, and she would be content to never have to deal with any of that again. She went back over to her humans, and dropped the packet of papers down onto an empty seat. “Alright, time for plan B.” When they just stared at her blankly, the Doctor grinned at them and clapped her hands together. “So! Who has a plan B?”  
,,,

Even though they were still in the lobby of the clinic, none of the doctors or patients seemed to care to listen in on them. “I didn’t think I’d ever be overwhelmed by how cheerful and polite everyone is,” Graham muttered as he shifted around in the chair that had clearly been designed for the natives of this place, which meant that they were far too big for humans. 

“Hey, I’d rather everyone be chipper than spittin’ on us. At least we’re not in Cardiff.”

The Doctor looked up from where she’d been busy bouncing ideas off of Yaz to give Ryan a faux glare. “Oi, and what’s wrong with Cardiff?”

Ryan just laughed. “As if you even have to ask.”

The Doctor felt twin pangs in her chest, and wished that she could just blame it on heartburn, but alas that was not an ailment that Time Lords were capable of suffering. She knew that it was just the thought of Cardiff that made her hearts ache. Well, more specifically a particular companion she’d had on two separate visits to the city. 

Now wasn’t the time to be reminiscing, though. The Doctor leapt up to her feet and started pacing back and forth in front of the chairs that still contained the humans. “Well, looks like our best bet is to go around back and just break in to get to the TARDIS. Alright, who wants to be on distraction duty?”

When Graham and Ryan both groaned at the same time, the Doctor shot them with double finger guns to show that they were the lucky winners. Graham shook his head. “I’m too old for this,” he argued. “Way too old.”

The Doctor patted down her pockets, and then pulled out a small smoke bomb that she didn’t remember putting in there. “Right, here you are! One homemade distraction coming up!”

Graham took the device, and then the Doctor hurried off, Yaz following after her. They left the clinic, and then paused on the front steps so that they could take a moment to take in the scenery. Every building around them looked completely different from each other, from the architecture to the coloring to the shapes of the windows and doors. “I feel like we’ve stepped into a Dr. Seuss book,” Yaz commented.

The Doctor gave a nod of agreement, and then started off to go around the side of the building. She had her sonic screwdriver in hand so that she could pry open whatever back door they found first. It was easy enough to get inside, and then they tried to move as quietly as possible through the maze-like corridors so that they could get back to where the TARDIS had parked. 

“Oh, are you supposed to be back here?”

The Doctor let out a loud sigh at the sound of someone talking directly to them. She turned around to give the alien doctor a cheerful smile. “Yes.” Then she turned to keep going in the direction she wanted to go in.

There was a soft laugh from behind them, and then the alien jogged out to stand in front of the Doctor and Yaz, blocking their way forward. “Sorry, but I guess someone must’ve forgotten to read you the rules. You need to be accompanied when you’re back here. Come on, I’ll take you to your room.”

The Doctor rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t deny that she was at least a little bit curious about what method was being used to find the lost memories. So she pocketed her screwdriver and let herself be led into a little room. It was pretty bare, with just a bed and a bedside table in it, but there were interesting designs painted across the walls, and the bed looked far comfier than the kind usually found in hospitals. 

The Doctor flopped down onto the bed, and enjoyed the slight bounce that came from whatever materials it was made out of. “Oh, this is nice.”

“We try our best to make sure that our patients are as physically comfortable as possible, because this process, while painless, is not a comfortable one.” The Doctor laid back, and reached up to rest the back of her head on her hands. 

The alien doctor reached out to gently brush their fingers against the side of the Doctor’s head. The Doctor closed her eyes and waited for some kind of telepathic connection to build up. She couldn’t help frowning, though, when nothing happened. “What’s supposed to-”

And then, without any prompting, the Doctor suddenly found herself standing elsewhere, and she seemed to be a disembodied observer. The strangest thing was that this was not one of her memories. Even if it contained a future version of herself, it would also have to contain a past one, and there were no Doctors to be found. When the first voice spoke, the one who’s eyes the Doctor seemed to be looking through, she felt the need to gasp because she would recognize that voice anywhere, even after hundreds of years had passed between them. Then she let herself get fully drawn into the memory, eager to figure out what was going on.

_“It won’t be like this forever, you know,” came River Song’s achingly familiar voice, the one that belonged to her final incarnation._

_There was a slight laugh, though she didn’t turn to look at the person sitting next to her, she just continued to stare out at the sunrise. It was blue and green, and there were at least six different suns all at various stages of sinking down below the horizon. “I find that hard to believe.” And that was Rose’s voice, which still sounded the same as ever, and was just as unforgettable as River’s was._

_Then River finally did turn to look at her companion, revealing a Rose that looked exactly like the Doctor remembered. “Would I ever lie to you?”_

_Rose snorted. “Of course you would, you’re just like him.”_

_River laughed. “Alright, maybe, but I’d definitely try not to. What would be the point, anyways?” Then she watched as Rose pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “I get it, though. The hardest part is when you realize that they all just keep going on without you.”_

_“Not that we’d want them to ever stop,” Rose added._

_River nodded. “Right. We want them to live on and find a new reason to keep going. But it still sucks when you know that you’re not the reason anymore. If I was a more selfish person, I’d go and find him right now, and just be with him. I wouldn’t ever let him move on without me. You know that was always one of my biggest fears, after I first met one of his former companions. It was the first time I realized that we’re all just so human, so replaceable.”_

_There was a pause, and then Rose spoke again, with a forceful amount of conviction in her voice. “Oh bullshit. We both know that neither of those things are true. Well, you know better than me, anyways.” Then Rose let out a loud laugh. “You realize that this has to be the most bonkers conversation I’ve ever had, right?”_

_River laughed too. “Of course I realize that.” Then they both laughed for another few moments about some inside joke that the Doctor didn’t get._

_Once the mirth faded, though, there was just a feeling of melancholy floating around the two women. “Do you ever think that it would be easier if you could just check in on him every now and then? Just get a peek to make sure that he’s really alright?”_

_River gave Rose a knowing look. “Of course. But it’s too dangerous. Remember Pete Tyler?”_

_“As if I could ever forget.” They were both silent for a few more seconds, and then Rose sighed. “Will I ever see him again? Am I allowed to ask that?” When River didn’t answer immediately, Rose shook her head and looked away, focusing far too intently on the sunrise. “Sorry.”_

_“No, it’s- it’s my fault,” River said with a low chuckle. Then she reached into her pocket to root around for a moment, and pulled out a familiar TARDIS-blue journal. She tossed it onto Rose’s lap. “Here.”_

_Rose looked startled as she stared down at the book, and picked it up with a reverent look on her face as she stroked the binding. She flipped it open to the last page with writing on it, revealing that the pages were yellowed and ancient looking. The writing also continued much further into the journal than the Doctor remembered from the glimpse she’d gotten at the Library._

_Rose only looked at the last page before snapping the book shut, and there was a feeling of finality to the moment that the Doctor didn’t understand. “Maybe we should burn this. Think of what would happen if it fell into the wrong hands.”_

_“And who would have the right hands? You?”_

_“Yeah right. I can’t be trusted with anything, you know that better than anybody.”_

_There was more silence between them, and then River got to her feet, looking down at Rose. “I came here because I’m as selfish as you are, but this way we can make sure that we don’t ruin his timeline. The Doctor never came here while I knew him, which means that if he shows up at some point after this, it’ll be okay. But then again, the odds of him actually showing up at the right time and place out of all the times and places in the universe…”_

_Rose slowly got to her feet as well, though she looked more hesitant to do so. “I wouldn’t be too sure about that. Remember we’re not just talking about the Doctor here, but the TARDIS. And she’s always been quite fond of me.” She clutched the blue book to her chest for a moment, and then tossed it back to River. “I shouldn’t have this, and he definitely can’t. Just- make sure it goes somewhere safe. And… and tell me what you’re going to leave for the Doctor?”_

_River grinned, and then gestured widely. “This!”_

_“This…?”_

_River nodded. “This conversation.”_

_That made Rose furrow her eyebrows in concern. “He’ll have no idea what we’re talking about. He probably won’t even be able to figure out when this takes place. And besides, if you leave this memory behind, then you won’t have it anymore, will you?”_

_“That’s part of my reasoning,” River admitted. “I wouldn’t want to give up anything that matters too much to me. To us. So quick, tell me where you’re going to go once this conversation is over.”_

_Rose shook her head. “I thought we already agreed that we’re not allowed to be selfish with the Doctor.”_

_“Did we? What a shame. Well, I suppose this means you should be moving on, then. I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other around.”_

_Rose rolled her eyes. “Right.” Before she could go, River pulled her into a tight hug, and Rose seemed to just barely tolerate it, pulling away to flee as soon as River’s arms loosened their grip. Then Rose scampered off, and River looked down at a card she’d carefully removed from Rose’s pocket. It said ‘Samfermamtim Hotel and Confectionary Shop’. River continued to stare at the card as she spoke under her breath, “You better not have forgotten about us, Doctor.”_

The Doctor gasped as her eyes snapped open and she bolted upright in the bed. The alien doctor gave her a pleasant smile. “It can be a bit overwhelming-”

The Doctor quickly got to her feet and fumbled to pull out her screwdriver. “Where did you get that memory? And when?”

“It was left about three days ago, to be given you to upon your arrival. It’s not entirely uncommon for people to decide to share memories, especially ones that serve to cheer people up, or occasionally that could help solve some kind of crime.”

The Doctor gulped as she thought about what she’d seen. The memory was planted firmly in her head now, as surely as if she’d lived through it herself, and she found herself focusing on Rose’s face. She really had looked like she was still nineteen and freshly whisked off on grand adventures with old leather and big ears. But there had been something so heavy and old in her eyes, something that didn’t belong to the Rose Tyler the Doctor had known and lost. 

She thought of how Rose thought it would be selfish to try and see the Doctor again, but how River (and that was a whole basket of questions by itself- was this River before the Library? But then why was her journal filled in more than it had been? And how did she know Rose? The two of them had sounded so familiar with each other) had seemed confident that it was okay. The Doctor looked up at the alien, who was starting to look slightly concerned. “Do you know where I can find the Samfermamtim Hotel and Confectionary Shop?”

If the doctor was surprised by the question, they did an excellent job of hiding that fact. “It’s just a couple blocks to the east of here. It’s where a lot of our off-planet patients stay when they come to our clinic.”

The Doctor nodded, and started towards the door. She heard Yaz behind her offering apologies for the Doctor’s abruptness. “I’m sorry, but how much do we owe you for this?”

“Just charge it to my card!” the Doctor shouted as she ran down the hallway. She skidded to a halt outside of the TARDIS and got in, Yaz just behind her. 

They moved to the lobby, where Graham was in the middle of arguing with an angry looking alien as smoke curled up from the linoleum floor, and Yaz let out a sharp whistle. Both boys quickly hurried over and got in. “Was that a distraction or what?” Ryan asked proudly.

Nobody answered, and he just let out a huff before leaning up against the console. The Doctor piloted them a couple of blocks to the east, and when they landed she poked her head out to make sure they were in the right place. And yes, there was a ridiculously long name on a sign attached to a very large hotel. 

The Doctor hurried out and trusted the humans to follow her if they wanted, but she was too busy thinking about what might be waiting for her inside to focus on what they decided to do. The Doctor went right up to the front desk, and tapped on it less politely than she could have. “Can you tell me if you have a Rose Tyler checked in here?”

The alien at the desk gave the Doctor a friendly smile. “Sure thing! Just give me one moment.” They searched their computer screen for a few seconds, and then looked up. “I’m sorry, but it would seem that we do not have any guests under that name.”

The Doctor’s shoulders slumped down, and she felt like a fool for allowing herself to get her hopes up. It didn’t matter anyways, did it? If Rose was here without the Doctor, that meant she was doing her hopping around looking for Sandshoes, and it wasn’t the Doctor’s place to interfere with that. 

She knew that defeat was written all over her face, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t paying enough attention to see when Yaz walked up to the counter and cleared her throat. “How about a River Song?” 

The Doctor gave Yaz a sharp look as the alien began looking up the name. “How-?”

Yaz shrugged. “It was the name on the door of the room you were in.”

The Doctor hadn’t even thought to check that when she’d been dashing off in a hurry, and she’d neglected to look on her way into the room as well. It was a good thing she had these humans with her to help with the stuff she didn’t think of. 

After a few more seconds, the alien at the desk looked at them with a pleasant smile. “Ah, we do in fact have a River Song checked in at the moment. However, due to guest privacy policies, I cannot give you the room number.”

The Doctor just stared. She wasn’t sure what was going on, and whether River was really here, or if she’d paid for a room for Rose, or- “Can you call up to the room?” Graham suggested. “Tell ‘em that the Doctor’s here?” Oh bless him. None of the humans understood why the Doctor had suddenly been in such a rush to get to this specific hotel and none of them knew anything about Rose Tyler or River Song, but they could see that this was important to the Doctor, so they were doing their best to try and help.

The receptionist nodded. “Of course!” They picked up a phone and dialed, though the desk was tall enough that the Doctor couldn’t watch to see what extension was put in, and then after a few beats, someone in the room under River’s name must have answered. “Hello, this is Riuuyu at the front desk. I hope you’re enjoying your stay with us so far! I’m just calling to let you know that there are some folks down here looking for you. A doctor-?” they glanced at the group, and the Doctor nodded. “Yes. No problem, I’ll let them know!” They hung up, and then grinned at the Doctor and humans. “Your friend said she’ll be right down to see you.”

Then the group moved away from the desk, with Yaz thanking the receptionist first, and they settled onto the oversized, but comfortable, chairs that were scattered around the lobby. The Doctor couldn’t sit still, though, not when she was waiting so desperately for whoever was going to greet her.

Her head jerked over every time she heard the elevators ding, but it kept being false alarms. Before the Doctor could give up and just start going door to door, the elevator doors slid open again, and the Doctor froze. Rose Tyler stepped out of the elevator, not wearing that damn blue jacket, an adorably rumbled, sleepy look to her. 

The Doctor watched as Rose slowly looked around the lobby, gaze passing right over the Doctor until she’d looked at everyone else, and then she finally looked back at the Doctor questioningly. The Doctor grinned in what she hoped was a more welcoming than manic way, and forced herself to stay in place and let Rose come to her, not wanting to overwhelm the girl.

Rose blinked a few times, and then shuffled closer to their group. Graham stood abruptly, and cleared his throat. “Er, we’re just going to wait over there,” he said while gesturing vaguely. Then he basically dragged Yaz and Ryan off with him, leaving the Doctor and Rose with some semblance of privacy despite the fact they were still standing in the main lobby of a busy hotel.

Rose cleared her throat as her eyes flicked up and down the Doctor’s body. “You’ve changed.”

“Then how did you know I’m me?”

Rose laughed. “Well I was told over the phone that a group was visiting me, and none of the other groups in the room resemble humans. And within this group, it was pretty obvious which one of you was staring at me like you’ve missed me. How long has it been since the stars went out and you ditched me with your double?”

The Doctor tried not to hear the slight bitterness in Rose’s voice. Rose had every right to be upset that the Doctor had left without even saying goodbye, even if it had been for Rose’s own good. But the Doctor also noticed that the bitterness was faded and soft, clearly something Rose had grown past for the most part. But Rose’s question only created more questions for the Doctor. “I know that travel between universes is possible again, but that should have happened long after you… well. It looks like it hasn’t even been a year for you since I left you on that beach.”

Rose frowned, and then glanced down at herself like she was expecting to see something different. “Huh, I guess it doesn’t.” Then she looked back up at the Doctor. “How did you know I was going to be here?” She sank down onto one of the chairs while she waited for the Doctor to answer, and after a moment of hesitation, the Doctor sat down as well.

She knew she was supposed to answer the question, but the Doctor couldn’t help just staring at Rose for a few seconds. It had been hundreds of years since she’d last seen that beautiful face, and other than the almost ancient depth in her eyes, she looked the same as always. “River left me a memory of a conversation that ended with her showing me a card for this hotel. Dare I even ask how you know each other?”

For some reason that startled a laugh out of Rose. “Don’t you see the resemblance? Or would it help if I said ‘spoilers’? I know that’s her thing.” The Doctor furrowed her eyebrows, but Rose kept talking before another question could be asked. “I feel like I shouldn’t be telling you this, but I also know that River wouldn’t risk the fate of the universe, or even just the fate of the Doctor, on a whim.” She took a deep breath in, then slowly let it out. “I know River because she saved my life a couple times over, and I saved hers. Everything about our timeline is a giant mess of causal loops and potential paradoxes. And yes, I did say ‘our’ timeline. Singular. Because we share the one. I’m her. She’s me.

“I was Rose Tyler first. Ordinary human girl who got involved in things that went way over my head. Then I looked into the heart of the TARDIS, and it changed me in ways that neither of us ever could have predicted. It changed my DNA into something a bit closer to Time Lord than human. And I lived for a while in Pete’s world, with the human Doctor. We got married and traveled together and had domestic visits with my family and it was a good life. We both grew old, and even though I still missed you, once I stopped being angry with you, I understood why you’d given me that life.

“Then I died, on a planet that doesn’t even exist in this universe. My Doctor carried me onto the TARDIS and I thought that it was the end. But even though she was still a baby, our TARDIS was smart. She knew that with me being as similar to a Time Lord as I was, she could upload me into her matrix, and then basically just emailed me to your TARDIS. 

“And then when your dear friends Rory and Amy celebrated their marriage, the TARDIS saw an opportunity to get me back, and took me out of the matrix to make sure that I would be the baby. And by now you already know the story of what happened after that. 

“But it’s still not a straightforward tale, since I obviously look like this right now. Basically, while I was still in my dimension hopping days, which seems like an eternity ago at this point, I came across the largest Library in the universe, with nobody in it except the shadows. 

“I found a sonic screwdriver on top of a journal, and I figured that I was in a place that you had to have been, even if the screwdriver wasn’t the one I was familiar with. So I took both and I searched and I found the computer with everyone on it. I wanted to save all of them, but in the end it just wasn’t possible, because there were no bodies for them to go into.

“But even though I didn’t understand why at the time, I realized that River could share with me, at least temporarily. So I took her and left and we co-existed until my search for you led me to a place where they made people out of plastic. Using River’s memories of the face she wanted, we made a body for her, and popped her inside, and then we went our separate ways after she promised not to look for you and risk ruining your timeline.”

The Doctor blinked a few times when Rose stopped talking, and even with her genius brain, it still seemed to take a while to actually process all of that. “But that doesn’t explain why you look like you now. If all of that- shouldn’t you be the plastic River right now?”

Rose sighed, and slumped back in her seat. “Everything I just told you is the truth. But the rest of it is that my TARDIS jumped the gun when she uploaded my mind, because I was already Time Lord enough to be able to regenerate. But not Time Lord enough for my body to completely rewrite itself in the same way yours does. I was basically just reset.”

The Doctor frowned. “So you and River are separate, then? Like me and my metacrisis?”

Rose wobbled one hand in the air in the universal gesture for ‘sort of’. “We do have our own sets of memories, but River remembers being Rose Tyler for nearly a hundred years before she was born again as Melody Pond. And we have all the same memories from the time we spent sharing a body. And while we may technically be separate beings, we still meet up every now and then to talk about the past and the future and swap stories. And in the end, I’ll never remember being River, but she’ll always remember being me.”

It all sounded so impossible, and yet the Doctor could see in Rose’s eyes that she was not the same teenager who had packed her bags and left home with a stranger. And she couldn’t think of any other explanation for both River being alive still and for Rose being here with all those years in her gaze. “It’s strange to think that two people I cared for very much turned out to be the same person, technically. Did- did River know and remember being Rose the entire time we’ve known each other?”

Rose nodded. “Yeah. It’s why she found it so easy to save your life in the Library, because she already knew that I would go back to rescue her from there, since she’d already done it in her past.”

The two blondes stared at each other for a moment before both broke out in laughter. “Thousands of years old and I don’t think time is ever going to start making sense.” 

Then Rose gave her that smile, the one that was so uniquely hers, and the Doctor’s laughter trailed off. She reached out hesitantly to take one of Rose’s hands, and Rose let her. “Yeah, well, I’ve literally seen all of time, and it still doesn’t make any sense to me either.”

The Doctor couldn’t help the fond smile that stretched across her lips even if she tried. “So, uh, is the adventuring life all in the past?”

Rose laughed. “What’s the past to a couple of time travelers?” Then she leaned over to press a light kiss to the Doctor’s cheek. “I’m ready to go any time you are.” 

They held hands as they left the hotel and got onto the TARDIS, and the Doctor was glad to see that the humans had slipped onboard at some point while she was talking with Rose (because otherwise she might have accidentally left them behind). Rose and the Doctor danced around the console, piloting the ship together like they’d been doing it for years, and the Doctor silently thanked the universe for letting her get what she wanted, just this once.


End file.
